Robert Strale

Experience

• 

  Advocate Health Care

  Aug 2011 - Jan 2017

  • Achieved, through behavioral influence and systemic improvements, a 50% reduction in the occurrence of preventable safety events which lead to serious patient harm. Facilitator of casual analysis for events recognized as high risk among the 5,000 safety events reported in 2015.• Improved 2015 AHRQ Culture of Safety Survey 23 percentile ranks from prior year, including composites in error feedback and communication, non-punitive response to error, and communication openness ranking above the 90th percentile.• Leading the organizational high reliability transformation by training safety coaches at the sharp end of care within a three month program detailed in high reliability science, peer coaching and problem solving methodologies focused on improving overall patient safety culture and performance.• Integrally involved in development and continuous revision of both the Advocate Health Care system and Sherman Hospital site patient safety strategic plan. Creating detailed initiatives to senior leaders with the end goal of reaching zero preventable events resulting in serious harm by 2020. Show less • Developed an initial, accurate serious safety event rate baseline of 4.46, identifying 31 serious safety events within the more than 3,500 events reported and physician peer review referrals, and completed extensive cause analysis investigations to prevent recurrence of complex clinical system failures with top performing RCA aging metric of 16 days.• Influenced under reporting positions and under reported event types resulting in increased safety event reporting rate from 2.7 to 4.8 reports per reports per 100 adjusted patient days, exceeding system reporting rate goal of 3.5.• Acted as catalyst for medication bar code scanning accountability yielding an increased scanning compliance from consistent performance of 93% to greater than 96%, approximately reducing noncompliance by an average of 740 medications each month.• Contributed to safety culture indicative of producing two consecutive years of top performing Advocate culture of safety survey results between 73rd - 75th percentiles.• Established and maintained effective, long-standing relationships with associates, physicians and critical councils in order to advance applications of safe practices and behaviors. Show less Consultant role regarding quality assurance, patient safety, and regulatory compliance for the Division of Medical Management.•Initiated and led performance improvement projects for the Emergency Department, Gastrointestinal Laboratory and Histology Laboratory. Analyzed quality measures, presented analysis to leadership team and partnered to devise solutions. •Coordinated outpatient endoscopy scheduling systems and processes between Trinity Hospital, multiple Advocate Medical Group centers and physician practices. Developed accurate baseline and reduced cancellation rate by 8% using six sigma methodologies required for Green Belt certification.•Investigated serious patient safety events and facilitated greater than 30 cause analysis sessions. Implementation of approximately 100 risk reduction strategies that eliminate the risk of event reoccurrence and serious patient harm.•Guided administration, management, and associates through Det Norske Veritas and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid regulatory accreditation surveys. Obtained certification with minimal deficiencies cited. •Designed automated reconciliation process between surgical areas and histology. Process incorporated multiple barriers from collection through processing, which has resulted in no occurrence of related events after implementation and has since been adopted by all Advocate facilities.•Identified the driving performance themes behind three major associate surveys, and implemented a single program for low performing areas. Reduced the amount of non-productive associate engagement time commitment by 75% and increased ranking to the 94th percentile. Recognized as best practice by the corporate office, the process is projected to be a catalyst for culture change and increased results amongst all surveys. Show less Obtained graduate internship in coordination with MHA requirements. Capstone: Analysis of Inpatient Chemotherapy Administration & Feasibility Study for Reducing Excess Days per Discharge •Devised and implemented an action plan to decrease LOS of chemotherapy inpatients. 50% decrease in excess days per discharge, resulting in $120,000 in increased net margin.•Organized, analyzed, and presented current inpatient chemotherapy data for CMC’s oncology service line. Analysis used as the quality improvement requirement for CMC’s Commission on Cancer accreditation survey, which received a three year gold commendation.•Coordinated future data collection and analysis of inpatient chemotherapy administration for process review. Database which is a significant improvement in collection of data for oncology service line, including robust reporting capabilities that focus on physician-specific analysis. Show less

  • Director, Patient Safety

    May 2015 - Jan 2017

  • Manager, Patient Safety

    Dec 2013 - May 2015

  • Performance Improvement Coordinator, Division of Medical Management

    Jan 2010 - Dec 2013

  • Graduate Internship

    Aug 2011 - May 2013
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  Advocate Christ Medical Center

  Jan 2017 - now

  Manager